


The do's and don'ts of civilized society

by TopSideWolf



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Crime Fighting, Established Relationship, F/F, Gender or Sex Swap, Kidnapping, Marriage, Moving In Together, argument, these two can't talk like normal couples
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:27:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28682526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TopSideWolf/pseuds/TopSideWolf
Summary: Danny is settling in at her favourite dive bar to wallow away her afternoon in self-pity, with a dash of self-righteousness, when a Bonnie and Clyde knock-off routine blow that plan and a bartender's head to kingdom come.ORThe one where Steve and Danny would not be in this situation if Steve had used her words and asked Danny to move in with her inside of going behind her back to forge Danny's signature on a break of lease form.
Relationships: Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter 1

"Steve normal people ask when they want someone to move in with them. They do not - Kono correct me if I'm wrong -"

Kono eyes the pair wearily, her body edging towards the safety of her office. 

"- they do not forge said person's signature on a break of lease form -"

"I paid the break of lease fee," Steve says. Danny knows the hesitation in her voice is not because she knows that she's in the wrong but because she's confused as to why Danny is mad. 

"Oh you did, did you? Well thank you for not only forging my signature but payment as well. On an official document. That is illegal Stephanie." 

Steve opens her mouth. 

Danny jabs a finger at her, "Don't you dare say we have 'immunity and means'."

"We -".

"Ah ah ah, no talking."

Steve's mouth snaps shut. 

"'Immunity and means' is for police work. Just because we can doesn't mean we should. Procedure exists for a reason. Which you very well know. And neither of those things give you the right to break my lease by impersonating an officer of the law!"

The words spill out louder and louder until loud slips over to out right shouting. She's a tightly coiled spring, about ready to snap and lash out at the hand holding her tight. And she wants to lash out. 

"Were you raised in a barn? Did they teach you this kind of behaviour was acceptable in the army?" She pauses, flinging her arms wide. "No? Sorry I didn't quite catch that over your resounding silence." 

The confusion has finally slid off Steve's face. 

"Well?"

"You would never have said yes if I'd asked." 

"I'm sorry, what?" 

Danny steps forward, hands balled and ready to strangle or punch Steve. She hasn't decided yet. Realises she doesn't much care as long as she wipes the obnoxious grin off Steve's pretty face. 

"You would have thought I was treating you like a charity case. You would have bitched and moaned and continued throwing your money at that shithole you call an apartment. This way you can't say no or that it's charity." Steve's grin kicks up from unbearable to unbearably smug. 

"Spit it out."

"It's also why your lease ends tomorrow."

Danny swings. 

Steve side steps, pats her fist down and her weight with it collapsing Danny against her chest, trapped in a hug. Danny thrashes.   
But Steve was a goddamn SEAL, has withstood waterboarding and days upon days of torture in the line of duty. She tightens her grip. 

"Let go!"

"So you can take another swing at me?"

Danny brings her leg up and slams her heel into Steve's shin with as much force as she can muster. 

Steve hisses. 

Danny does it a second time. Raises her leg for a third. 

"Okay okay. You've made your point." 

Steve let's go, putting a solid two meters between them. She stays between Danny and the exit as if she's worried Danny is going to hightail it out of the 5-0 office and Steve's life if given even half a chance. 

Steve should know by now the other half of that chance will just see Danny slinking back, grumbling all the way. 

Danny knows she should want out. Should be running for the hills as fast as her legs will carry her. She just can never seem to convince her legs to move. Not when Steve first got her shot. Not the time and time and time after that. And certainly not now. 

Danny deflates. 

"Fuck you McGarrett." 

She whirls on her heels and hightails it into her office. She slams the door shut, the exclamation point to her 'fuck you'. The door being made of glass, doesn't drive home the point nearly as much as she wants it to. 

~~~~~~~

Danny glares at the change of address form, the empty signature box glaring back, the only part of the form she hasn't painstakingly filled out. Still doesn't know if she'll sign it. 

It feels too much like she's been worked over in an interrogation, her innocence ignored, only to cave and sign a false confession because it's her only option. 

She doesn't want this to be her only option. 

Last night the carpet was under her feet. Today it's wrapped around Steve's shoulders and she's clinging to Steve's feet to beg for it back. If she signs the change of address form, tomorrow she'll be wrapped around Steve's shoulders too. 

She needs another option. Some way to pry her carpet free from Steve's fingers and to nail it underfoot. 

She had planned to share her carpet with Steve but not like this. 

Danny crumples the form, palms it and steps out of her office for the first time in three hours. 

The rest of her team are gathered around the table in the bullpen, chairs pulled up as they pour over files. Steve freezes mid-sentence, her eyes wide. 

Danny tries to pretend she isn't there. That Steve isn't boring holes into her with her laser focus. 

"Chin. Kono. Can I ask a favour of you?"

The cousins share an uneasy look. Danny doesn't blame them. She wouldn't want to be dragged into her and Steve's shit show either. 

"Yeah what is it?" Chin takes the lead. 

"Can I stay with one of you until I find a new place? It'll only be for a week, two tops." 

Chin glances at Steve. Danny's eyes can't help but follow suit. She's gone ridged, her lips pressed tight, her hands balled around her pen. 

"Danny I don't know if it's the best -"

"Please," she hates that she has to beg. "Don't make - I don't want to ask Rachel." She says instead. 

The pity in Chin's eyes is almost enough to get her hightailing it from the bullpen. But she doesn't have anywhere to go. So she stands her ground and let's the pity smother her. 

"Okay," Chin says at last. 

"Thank you." 

Danny turns, more than ready to hide the rest of the day away in her office. She still has a far too large stack of paperwork that needs i's dotted, t's neatly crossed, and all signed off in triplicate. It should take her until at least 6pm. 

A hand clamps around her wrist, "Danny." 

"No." 

"Can we please talk about this?" 

A laugh punches its way out. "Oh I'm sorry, now you want to talk? Have a civilized discussion about moving in together like two reasonable adults? That talk?" 

Steve flinches. 

It suckerpunches Danny in the gut but she refuses to let Steve know just how much it hurts. How much she's hurt her. 

Danny rakes her free hand down her face, blinking back tears. She looses a shaky breath, squares her shoulders, and pries Steve's fingers from her wrist. 

It feels halfway between an 'I'm sorry' and a 'goodbye' even though it's neither and both. 

She places the crumpled change of address form onto the table. 

"Forge this one too if you want. It's not like you've needed my consent before." 

She's out the door before Steve's recovered enough to stop her. Danny's not sure where she'll go. All she knows is that she'll end up back here eventually. 

~~~~~~~~

Danny is settling in at her favourite dive bar to wallow away her afternoon in self-pity, with a dash of self-righteousness, when a Bonnie and Clyde knock-off routine blow that plan and a bartender's head to kingdom come. 

~~~~~~~~~

Contrary to popular belief Danny knows when to keep her mouth shut, when quiet and calm is needed over rage and yelling. She’s been a cop for a damn long time. Been in dicey situations more times than she cares to count. She knows how this will go down, how likely she is to get out alive. 

She buries the thoughts of Grace, of Steve, that race through her mind. 

Danny's hunkered down, squashed into a corner with all the other customers turned hostages. 

The alcohol that not so long was a pleasant buzz in her veins has all but evaporated. At least, evaporated enough that she knows what she plans to do next might very well get her shot. 

She stands up. 

“The police are stonewalling us. We should shoot someone -”

“I can get you a direct line to the Governor’s task force,” she raises her hands in a non-threatening gesture, gun hanging from one hand, the magazine in the other. 

The woman swings around, gun up and ready, but just as likely to miss Danny as hit her. Her hands are shaking, the bags under her eyes tiny abysses. Danny really fucking hopes Bonnie isn’t a junkie chasing her next high. Doesn’t need that level of unpredictability in an already unpredictable situation. 

“Let me help you. I'm 5-0." 

Bonnie motions for her to slide her gun over with a jerk of her gun. It's something right out of an old cop film. Danny slowly, slowly, slowly crouches down and slowly, slowly, slowly slides her gun and clip over and slowly, slowly, slowly stands back up. Her eyes don’t leave Bonnie’s. Doesn’t trust her not to get jumpy and shoot her. 

“Start talking.” 

“My phones in the pile, the one with the yellow case. Call Commander Steve McGarrett and tell her your demands. She heads the Governor’s task force. She will listen. She won’t stonewall you like HPD are.” 

Clyde plucks her phone from the pile, “Cute kid.” 

Danny forces herself to swallow the lump in her throat, to keep still and not lunge, hands outstretched and ready to strangle. 

“Thanks,” she grits out. “She is.” 

Clyde knocks shoulders with Bonnie, phone held between them as it rings and rings and - 

“Danny? Where are you? We’ve got a hostage situation at the OI. How far -” 

“- I’m afraid she can’t come to the phone right now.” 

Steve goes silent. It’s the deadly kind of silence. The kind that Steve wears as she switches from normal Steve to SEAL Steve. As she prepares to do whatever it takes to get from A to B, no matter what she has to destroy to get there. This is Steve at her most dangerous, her most calculated and unhinged. 

“Who is this?” Steve asks finally, her voice dangerously calm. 

“Your hostage situation at the OI. I have some demands, Commander, and it’s in your best interest that you do as I say or I’ll start shooting hostages, starting with Danny here.” 

“What do you want?” 

“Phil Marsh released from Honolulu prison and on the plane waiting at Tela airfield in the next hour. Us with him.” 

“Okay,” Steve says after a minute. “It’s being arranged right now. Marsh will be on the plane. HPD won’t stop you trying to leave. Just let the hostages go and I assure you we won’t stop the plane leaving American airspace. Do we have a deal?” 

“Not quite. Danny’s gonna stay with us until I see Phil with my own two eyes and we’re all safely aboard that plane. That’s the deal.” 

“No. You will let the hostages -”. 

Bonnie has the gun pointed at an old man. Danny knows she’ll start shooting hostages till there are none left if Steve doesn’t agree to their terms. Nothing about the couple suggests they have anything left to lose by dropping fifteen people here and now. 

Danny steps forward, “Deal. You have a deal.” 

“- Danny!” 

Steve’s desperation gives away too much and Danny knows Clyde hears it all. Hears all Steve’s love and panic and willingness to do whatever to keep Danny safe. He smirks at her, a man who’s just won the lottery. 

Danny has to shut her eyes against the fear threatening to drag her under. 

“See you in an hour Commander. Danny will stay in one piece for now. But I can’t promise I won’t put any bullet holes in her if you try and screw me over.” He ends the call, pocketing the phone. “Let’s go chica.” 

Bonnie presses the gun into her back, “Move.” 

Danny moves. 

~~~~~~~

Danny is on her knees, fingers folded behind her head, the gun a constant pressure as she calculates how many weeks she's gonna be limping around with the crutch for, when the Camaro skids to a stop on the tarmac, two minutes shy of an hour. 

Steve spills out of the car, Chin a step behind her as she wrenches open the door to the backseat and hauls Marsh out. She drags him over to Bonnie and Clyde, jerking him to a stop thirty feet short. 

Kono is nowhere in sight. Danny really hopes she's set up camp on one of the many hills or buildings, watching this go down through her scope. That she's waiting for the go ahead to take the shot. 

"I was beginning to think you weren't going to make it Commander," Clyde taps Danny's head with his gun. "We were just debating which leg I was gonna shoot her in first." 

Stone cold fury has settled into Steve's face. Has probably been there since the phone call. But her eyes soften, so minutely that only someone who knows Steve inside and out would catch it, when her eyes flick to Danny. 

Danny stares back. Lets Steve see that she's alive and unharmed. Watches Steve's eyes soften a fraction more before hardening as they flick back to Clyde. 

"I've kept up my end of the deal. Let her go." 

"I don't think so. Not until we're all safely aboard that plane." 

“Fine,” Steve growls. “Once you’re on the plane I’ll hand over Marsh for Danny.” 

“No. Phil is getting on that plane first. Then us.” 

Steve pushes Marsh forward. She and Chin have their guns trained on Marsh and the couple lest they try something stupid as Marsh crosses the thirty feet between them, pats Clyde on the shoulder, kisses Bonnie on the head and ascends the stairs into the plane. 

“Us next chica,” Clyde says loud enough that it carries the thirty feet and hides Bonnie's low, “I’m going to enjoy shooting you,” as she reaches down. 

Danny’s heart stutters to a standstill before pounding into overdrive. 

The constant pressure of the gun leaves Danny’s head for a second as she’s hauled up by her collar and her knee screams in protest and she hisses, lets herself half stumble, half turn and slam her weight into Bonnie and 

bang 

and they both go down and 

bang 

hands scrambling for the gun and 

bang 

they crash into the tarmac and Danny is gasping and gasping and Bonnie is not fighting and Danny snags the gun and levels it at Bonnie and 

“Danny!” 

there is a bullet hole in Bonnie’s forehead and Steve is there and Danny tries to get up but her legs won’t support her and she crashes down and Steve is there and lowering her to the tarmac and 

“Chin call the paramedics. She’s been shot.”

Danny smiles up at Steve, “I knew you’d come.” Gasps as Steve presses her hands to the cold seeping from her stomach that she’s sure wasn’t there a few seconds ago. 

“Hurry Chin.” 

Steve’s eyes are beautiful but they’re filled with fear so thick and dark that Danny is struggling to breath from it. 

“You’re gonna be fine Danno.” 

Danny knows Steve is lying, is not sure what she is lying about, thinks she’s lying about the cold that is getting colder and colder and colder and Danny remembers this morning and their fight and it's getting colder and colder and colder and she was angry at Steve and Steve looks terrified and Danny needs Steve to be smiling and 

“Ask me to move in with you.” 

“Danny you’re bleeding -” 

“- Ask me.” 

Steve chokes back a desperate sob. Her hands a warm, comforting pressure against the gaping cold in her stomach. 

“Will you, Danielle Williams, move in with me?” 

“Yes,” she coughs, blood trickling out of her mouth. “I’ll even -” another cough “marry you if you ask nicely.” 

Everything is so cold that not even the warmth of Steve’s hands can keep the cold at bay much longer. 

“Where are the medics?” Steve shouts, her hands a pin prick against the cold. “I need the medics now! Danny. Danny. Babe you gotta stay with me. Stay with me Danno.” 

Danny opens her mouth, tries to tell Steve to ask her to marry her, tries to tell Steve that it’s important. Only blood bubbles out. 

Her eyelids are so heavy. So cold. 

Steve sobs through a smile, “Marry me?”

The cold drags Danny under. Stealing away her yes, yes, yes.


	2. Chapter 2

Four days, twelve hours, and thirty-nine minutes after Danny's shooting Steve finds herself at a jeweller. 

She doesn't remember how she got there. Doesn't remember much since the light leached from Danny's eyes to be replaced with the unrelenting cold. Doesn't remember much since she stopped pressing her hands against Danny's stomach.

The only thing she remembers is Danny. 

Danny asking Steve to ask her to move in with her. 

Danny saying yes to moving in with her. 

Danny asking Steve to ask her to marry her. 

Danny not getting to say yes. 

It plays on a loop. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and it's all that Steve can hear. 

"And what exactly would you like me to do with this key?" The jeweller asks. "I have some lovely gold chains if you're interested."

"I'm not." 

The jeweller's smile faulters before they wrestle it back under control, the epitome of customer service. 

"I want you to melt it down into a ring," Steve pushes a piece of paper forward. "With that inscription on the band. The ring sizes are there too." 

The jeweller picks up the key and studies it. Steve has to bite down and swallow her instinct to snatch the key back. To snatch Danny's key back. 

She manages. Barely. 

"I can have this ready by the weekend." 

"I can wait," Steve says. 

Because Danny didn't say yes. 

She didn't get the chance.


End file.
